In today's Globe and Mail, an interesting article on a first novelist: From teddy bears to crime writing. What makes it interesting: The novelist is a businesswoman who switched to writing in a very businesslike way. Excerpt:
More than 40 members of the International Thriller Writers association are publishing their debut novels this year, the tip of an iceberg that rests on thousands more unpublished manuscripts and millions of dreams of literary fame and fortune. Hope springs eternal, then freezes forever. But that's not news.
What's news is that one of these earnest amateurs, without so much as a single printed word behind her, not only placed her debut novel with a leading New York publisher – who is bringing out a first edition of 150,000 hardcover copies early this summer and organizing a major publicity tour – she has also sold it to a dozen publishers abroad and secured a deal to write two sequels.
This time last year, Rene Unischewski was selling teddy bears to gift shops and florists on her native Vancouver Island. Today, her name is Chevy Stevens and she is jetting about on what her publishers call a “pre-publication tour” for her upcoming novel, Still Missing.
Even before she has sold a single book – or story or article – Chevy Stevens, 36, is a publishing phenomenon.
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